Heath says tax would fix streets

The last time Heath put an income-tax increase on the ballot, it failed. Officials waited nine years before trying again.

Lori Kurtzman, The Columbus Dispatch

The last time Heath put an income-tax increase on the ballot, it failed. Officials waited nine years before trying again.

In the meantime, the Licking County city grew by more than 1,500 residents while income-tax revenue rose less than 9 percent. It wasn’t enough, said Mayor Mark Johns. City departments were trimmed, and roads and curbs left to fall into disrepair.

“We have a number of neighborhood streets that are crumbling,” Johns said.

That’s why the city council has once again turned to voters, this time asking for a 0.4?p ercentage-point income-tax increase in the Nov. 6 election. The increase would mean an additional $3.85 a week out of the paycheck of someone who makes $50,000 a year and would raise about $1.3?m illion annually for the city. Heath, which has about 10,300 residents, has a general-fund budget of about $7?million now.

The additional tax would hit those who both live and work in Heath hardest. Their tax would jump from 1.5 percent to 1.9 percent. Those who live in Heath but work elsewhere might not see a change. If the measure passes, the council will give many of those who work outside the city a 0.4 percent credit in addition to the 1.25 percent they already receive.

For example, a person who lives in Heath but works in Newark would continue to pay Newark its 1.75 percent income tax and give 0.25 percent to Heath.

If the tax passes, the money will help build the city’s capital improvement fund to repave the streets and replace the curbs that have been neglected for years, Johns said. If it doesn’t pass, he said that the failure along with the termination of Ohio’s inheritance tax — which meant about $200,000 a year for Heath — could mean deep cuts and the draining of reserve funds.

“The people of Heath are going to decide what type of city we have,” Johns said.